Monkey Jungle - "It's my birthday!"

Come on in and join the party, you're all invited even if you're tardy. It is time to do some monkey business!

Uday took me and Mom to Monkey Jungle in Miami, for my birthday after we both worked a few hours in the morning and took a half day off as my birthday fell on a Monday this year. We took a few pictures of us as well but we were all pretty tired and the monkeys look much better in the pictures than we do so I did not add us this time. With the exception of pictures of Uday because he was acting like a monkey anyway! Monkey Jungle is a small park that took us more time to drive to than the amount of time needed to see it completely, but it was nice to be around the wildlife for a change instead of being at work.



In some places at Monkey Jungle the monkey's are not caged in and you can feed them in a cup with a string that they pull up to the roof and eat. Uday was having fun doing this as you can see below.


Smile pretty for the camera!!


Dazed and confused...


There were a few other creatures there in addition to monkeys and they were interesting as well...



This Gorilla looks like he is contemplating life and how to create World Peace!


Everyone's favorite at this park were the Mandrills. We had never see a species like this in person and they are just fascinating. Mandrills are the largest of the monkey family (unlike the Gorilla and Orangutan which are the great Apes). We felt bad that these ones were in a cage that was too small. We talked to a person that works there and he agreed and he told us that they are working on fixing this by moving one of them to a new location.



They yawn a lot especially when they are feeling some tension. They have very large sharp teeth!



This Orangutan looked a little sad, but I found it interesting to watch and take pictures of her.



She still has a sense of humor!!


This was a fun little trip seeing the monkeys before we went out for Thai food for my birthday dinner... Thanks to Mom and Uday for all of your love and gifts!

Click on the picture below to see a short video from Monkey Jungle:

Back Home in America!

July -
We arrive back home in America after spending two weeks in India just in time to recuperate and get ready for my favorite holiday, Independence Day. I have now discovered a new found appreciation for America and enjoyed spending the 4th of July on Delray Beach, Florida this year. Ahh it is good to be back home!


Uday and I both love Delray Beach especially since this was the town we got married in. We walk towards the beach where they will be setting off the fireworks.














We make some friends and I just love their "Patriotic look"! It doesn't get better than this on the 4th of July!!


We also meet another nice couple who have extra 3-D glasses and they give them to Uday and I. This was the first time we both ever watched the fireworks in 3-D.



It is like looking at a kaleidoscope!












Time moves on and we are back at home enjoying our dogs. Simba continues to be curious and fits in quite well with the family.




August -
We do some more exploring of Florida and decide to visit "Blowing Rocks Preserve" in Jupiter, FL. I join Associated Content and Examiner as a new writer and I publish an article on examiner.com on the "Blowing Rocks Preserve". Click on the picture for a link to this article.


We can't resist frequent visits to Peanut Island off of Singer Island and Riviera Beach, FL where we snorkel often. It is a $10 round trip ticket for a 10 minute ride on the Water Taxi to get over to the Island to snorkel for free. Every time we go it feels like we are on vacation and I still can't believe we live here!


There is also a Tiki Bar stationed here while we wait for the Water Taxi and it is not only a great place to get tropical drinks but they have a good menu and live music!



We take some fun pictures snorkeling but the pictures of the fish do not do this place justice. The snorkeling is great here but the pictures often come out blurry!

Uday's ready for snorkeling...


and so am I....


there is always lots of fish here!


But not always jelly fish, I guess this is season!


We also visit another favorite spot in our area called Bush Wild Animal Sanctuary, where they rescue wild animals and return them back to nature whenever possible and when it is not possible they take care of them at the sanctuary. It is a free place to see and learn about these animals but they need all the donations they can get to stay running.


They have many types of animals here and we took a picture of only a few since they are fenced in and the pictures do not come out is good as we would like. Below is a Florida Panther and they have a few of them here that used to be someone's pet and were de-clawed and cannot survive in the wild this way. One of them is actually named Simba, like our dog and they look alike too!


We enjoyed this very cute owl...


this pretty Falcon, which by the way, Madonna said she would be if she could be any animal!


And this Florida bird that I believe is called a Blue Egret and many, many more creatures ...


September -
In addition to enjoying being home and doing tourism in and around our home town we have been busy packing and getting ready to move out of our town-house and in with Mom since we got renters and we put an offer on another home. Since the offer is on a "Short-sale" we know that it will take some time and we are thankful that we can stay with Mom along with our two dogs, Boo and Simba, and her dog Hailey.

Before we know it we have moved our stuff to storage and are living with Mom. Here is a picture of the three dogs getting along on the bed we will be sleeping in for a while.


We continue to keep so busy that it is difficult to keep up with my blogs but as long a we are still having fun, it's all good!

Mother's Day in the Florida Sunshine

Coconut shrimp and a relaxing boat ride (Water Taxi), at low tide, is what we did on the weekend of Mother's Day. Uday and I took Mom out to Panama Hatties for lunch and then enjoyed a breezy boat ride on the Intercoastal in West Palm Beach, Florida.



We enjoyed picking out the house we want to live in when we win Publisher's Clearing House and had fun playing tourist learning more about the history of Singer Island and Peanut Island.






















Mom is more appreciated than she knows, and we can not thank her enough for all that she has done and continues to do for us. I am truly fortunate to have a mom who is so supportive, caring, and giving, not to mention, very beautiful. It is hard to believe that she will be turning 62 years young this November.

Click on the picture below to view all of our pictures with Mom:


Happy Mother's Day Mom and to all the Mom's out there!

It's time to Shine in 2009...

We got married in 2007 and that year for us was like Heaven! 2008 was great, with many beautiful escapes! Now, it's 2009, and it's time to shine!!!

We celebrated our New Year's Eve at Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach.


We did not have anything special planned since Uday was on call, and time had flown by so quickly, but we ended up having a great time.

At first we were greeted by Batman:


and then Uday got his 2 seconds of fame on the news!










We met some interesting people...





















We had a blast with the fire-works!


























And I don't know if I watched the video of "The Secret" too many times or not, but I was feeling very celestial and it appears that even the fire-works were attracted to me in that kind of way.













Dancing and watching the bull riding was also very fun! I especially enjoyed taking some pictures of the random people that were there, and of Uday, of course.






















Don't know exactly what the year ahead will bring but I am excited to find out!

Wishing you the best in this coming year!